The Tall Pines “Fear Is The Devil” and “Black Ribbon”EPs

The Tall Pines are a duo consisting of Connie Lynn Petruk and her partner Christmas Davis. If we’re honest, when we learnt that this was ’yet another’ two piece band with a blues/Americana/country/soul sound, we were somewhat apprehensive. However, when we saw references to shack-shakin and foot-stompin, we were willing to give them a listen …and, boy, we’re sure glad we did!

Any remaining concerns were quickly swept away by the simple, but very effective, “Fear Is The Devil”, which has an almost Nick Cave esque sense of ‘evil’ about it. In total contrast, the wonderful “Hooked On You” is one of the most seductive tracks we have heard in a long time. Sure, it borrows a sound similar to “Fever”, but it’s a perfect song to accompany the sexiest of Burlesque dances. The enchanting continues with “Sister Rose”, although this time the raunchy vocals are accompanied by a more rocking and sassy sound. The band keep the momentum going with the equally ass shaking “Ten More Miles”.

Ironically, given its title, we are finally given the chance to ‘cool down’ with “Mexico”. A song which is more traditional folk sounding and gives the imagery of a long and winding road, taking you all the way down to South America. The E.P. then concludes with the gentle strumming of the country/folk “The Traveller”.

This really is a brilliant release. Given the success enjoyed by bands like The Alabama Shakes and Shovels and Ropes, this deserves to be huge. We can’t give this EP any higher praise then confirming that we loved it so much that we immediately asked for more releases to review……

Hence we also checked out another of their E.P.s:

“Black Ribbons”

Thankfully, any fears we may have had that “Fear Is The Devil” was just a one-off, are put to bed completely by the brilliant title track, “Black Ribbons”. It’s a more funky, blues number which sees the male and female vocals blended perfectly. We then move to the blues rocking of “Wang Dang Doodle” which is as good as anything that has been released by Jack White.

It’s not long though, until we are again being seduced by Connie’s perfect, purring, vocals on “Leave Him At The Altar”. We then have the bar room boogie of “Union Street”, which you kind of hope you will hear served up with a shot of rum.

So what this second EP has done, is to make The Tall Pines a late, but possibly winning, entry in the competition to be one of our favourite discoveries of 2015!! Now, we’re going to go off and find even more of their releases and we suggest you buy these and then do exactly the same!!!